COMPUTER BASED SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT AND INFORMATION SYSTEMS INTEGRATION

Supply chains connect suppliers to a manufacturing company, departments inside a company, and a company to its customers. To properly manage the supply chain, it is necessary to assure superb customer service, low cost, and short cycle time. The supply chain must be completely managed, from the raw material to the end-customers.

The major types of supply chains are: manufacture to inventory, build-to-order, and continuous replenishment. Each type can be global or local.

It is difficult to manage the supply chain due to the uncertainties in demand and supply and the need to coordinate several business partners' activities. One of the major problems is known as 'the bullwhip effect, where lack of coordination results in large, unnecessary inventories.

Solutions to SCM (supply chain management) problems are provided via SCM functional software, ERP (Enterprise Resource planning) integrated software, and e-commerce applications. Innovative solutions also require cooperation and coordination with business partners, which are facilitated by IT innovations such as extranets that allow suppliers to view a company's inventories in real time.

Functional software is designed for departments, and it is difficult to integrate it for enterprisewide applications. Therefore, during the last fifty years, software integration has increased both in coverage and scope, from MRP to MRP II, to ERP, to enhanced ERP. Today, ERP software, which is designed to improve standard business transaction, is enhanced with decision-support capabilities as well as Web interfaces.

E-Commerce (EC) is available to provide new solutions to problems along the supply chain by automating processes and integrating the companies' major business activities with both upstream and downstream entities via an electronic infrastructure.

Order fulfillment in EC is difficult due to the need to ship small packages to many customers' doors. Outsourcing the logistics and delivery jobs is common, especially when same-day delivery is needed. Special large and automated warehouses also help in improving EC order fulfillment.